Debt Limit Has Been 'Weaponized' By Republicans Against The Economy, Democrats Say

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats on Wednesday accused their counterparts across the aisle of employing war-like tactics against their own country in threatening to block a hike in the nation's borrowing limit.

The nation already reached its debt ceiling of about $16.4 trillion in December, and the Treasury Department has started taking "extraordinary measures" to continue paying America's bills.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned Monday that in late February or early March the government would no longer be able to meet all its obligations, prompting a historic default if Congress does not raise the limit. The near default in August 2011 led to a downgrade of America's credit rating.

Democrats Wednesday offered a bill to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, saying that it has nothing to do with curtailing new spending, but only with authorizing the government to pay its bills. Threatening not to pay those bills, they argued, was akin to threatening to harm one's own country.

"Our Republican colleagues are busily gearing up for battle," said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in a news conference to unveil the bill, the Full Faith and Credit Act of 2013. "The extremists are again intent on blackmailing the country."

"We must not permit an artificial debt ceiling to throw the country into default, and our economy into chaos and depression, which is exactly what the Republicans are threatening to do," Nadler said.

Several of his colleagues put it in even starker terms, pointing out that the debt ceiling had routinely been raised dozens of times before the summer showdown of 2011.

"What was once a mere legislative relic has now been weaponized," said Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

The Democrats argue that the debt ceiling is harmful because Congress sets spending levels up front when it passes budgets and so-called continuing resolutions. It does so knowing how much tax revenue is expected to come in and how much money will have to be borrowed.

But the executive branch is not allowed to borrow money that exceeds the debt limit. If Congress decides it no longer wants to pay for the spending it has already authorized, it sets up the possibility of default.

"Raising the debt ceiling is not like calling up a credit card company to increase your credit limit so that you can spend more money," said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). "It's much more like borrowing to pay for things you already bought."

Republicans are hoping to cut spending by more than Congress and the White House already have over the last two years, and further trim deficits and the debt. Many analysts -- and many Democrats, as well -- believe at least another $1.4 trillion in spending cuts or revenue must be found to stabilize the country's debt.

But Democrats argued that brinksmanship over meeting the nation's obligations only worsens its financial prospects.

"Ironically, these guerilla tactics would probably increase our deficit by sending our economy back into a recession," said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).

Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

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More Crazy Examples of Congressional Theatrics

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Just in case anyone forgot that the House Judiciary Committee ACORN hearing was a House Judiciary Committee hearing about ACORN, Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) helpfully brought a bucket of acorns to the House Judiciary Committee. Also that day, colleague Lamar Smith praising the "turnout so early in the day" at 2:30pm, and Louie Gohmert offering up the malaprop: “From one acorn, many nuts can grow.” Like, say, Peter King.

Credit cards. Were it not for them, we would have to save up money in order to buy things. But do some credit cards take it too far, marketing to the youths? Byron Dorgan thought so when he saw the Hello Kitty Platinum VISA. "Does it seem to you like they’re targeting that 10-year-old, the 14-year-old." Ha! He should see the Hello Kitty vibrator.

Last time out, we made mention of Representative John Shadegg's (R-Ariz.) attempt to wield a baby in order to make a point about how terrible health care reform was. We neglected to mention that Representative Pete Stark (D-Calif.) took it a step further, and attempted to bring two young children to make his own points about health care (5:25 in video), at which point the House was officially barred from trafficking in human props any further.

How much is too much stimulus? When it allows representatives to make junior high math analogies based on topography and astronomy, maybe. Here, Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) makes some stupid pictures of dollar stacks that extend into the sky, to the celestial firmament itself. “If you took 100 dollar bills, Mr. President," Thune said, "and stacked them on top of each other you would have a stack that goes 689 miles high.” He added, "In other words, if you took the 100 dollar bills and not stacked them on top of each other, but wrapped them side-by-side all around the earth… If you could believe this, it’d go around the earth almost 39 times." So, we cannot stimulate the economy, because of science! (1:15 in clip)

Representative Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) wasn't having any of that whole "regulating tobacco" stuff. Why? Because it's "not the nicotine that kills, it's the smoke!" So, he argued, why don't we regulate lettuce, to keep people from smoking lettuce? Wouldn't that prevent a "pandemic" of cancers? This would have been a good point, were it not for the non-existence of either a massive industry geared toward curing lettuce and rolling it into cigarettes, or a target market of consumers who were even remotely interested in smoking lettuce. BUT YEAH OTHER THAT ALL THAT STUFF (and the fact that nicotine is addictive) STEVE BUYER IS A GENIUS.

From Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas): It came on two pages, It has withstood the ages. / The word "shall,'' is only 10 times mentioned, But enough to get one's attention. / No taxes did this law raise, To this day it continues to create much praise; / Two great religions does it claim, The "Law of the Ten Commandments'' is its name. / A current writing, 1,990 pages long, Has a socialist philosophy that is all wrong; / Difficult for the people to understand, And troubling what big government doth demand. / Over 3,445 "shalls'' it does loudly shout, New massive taxes does it proudly tout; / Written in secret by the bureaucrats, For exclusive use of the taxacrats. / The Congressional bill called "Health Care Reform," Is illusionary, the authors are still ill-informed; / Government ought not take over America's health biz. / And that's just the way it is."
And so, America, this is why you should have to die of easily treated medical conditions.

From the junior senator from Illinois: "It was the night before Christmas, and all through the Senate / The right held up our health care bill, no matter what was in it / The people had voted a mandated reform / But Republicans blew off the gathering storm / We'll clog up the Senate, they cried with a grin / And in the midterm elections, we'll get voted in / They knew regular folks needed help right this second / But fundraisers, lobbyists and politics beckoned / So try as they might, Democrats could not win / Because the majority was simply too thin / Then across every state there rose such a clatter / The whole senate rushed out to see what was the matter / All sprang up from their desk and ran from the floor / Straight through the cloakroom and right out the door."
There's more, but you will probably want to shoot yourself in the face after you read it.

For some reason, in the course of discussing fuel efficiency standards, Senator Chuck Grassley decided he should drive his point home by shouting out Ashton Kutcher and his movie, "Dude, Where's My Car." Prior to this, Grassley went on an extended monologue about Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album and the shards of a broken prism and the "multishades" of light. Just straight up tripping balls, in the well of the Senate. Anyway, as you now know, this TOTALLY fixed fuel efficiency standards!

Who's looking out for your precious bodily fluids? Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, that's who. And he's enlisted the help of a young girl, named Hannah, who has the power of talking to human embryos! "Are you going to kill me?" the embryos asked Hannah, who immediately scrawled a picture of this conversation on a giant piece of posterboard, so that Sam Brownback could stop people from killing the stem cells. And then Sam Brownback went on to support a bunch of wars in the Middle East!

James Inhofe (R-Batshit) hates him some gay marriage, and the gays in general. And to make his point, he carries around with him The Most Important Prop in America: a picture of his family. "As you see here, and I think this is maybe the most important prop we’ll have during the entire debate, my wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship." Ha! THAT HE KNOWS OF!